“Expo 2000” is a song by Kraftwerk. It was originally an a cappella jingle commissioned for the Hannover Expo 2000 World’s Fair in Germany, which was subsequently developed into longer pieces with music and additional lyrics. The original Expo theme was a typically Kraftwerk vocoder-voice singing the phrase “Expo 2000” in six languages. In total, the piece lasted thirty seconds. This “Expo-Jingle” was only available for download from the Expo 2000 website for a limited period and on the limited edition official Expo 2000 souvenir CD. It was the group’s first commercial recording of new, original music since the release of the 1986 album Electric Cafe. The Expo 2000 single was first released on CD and 12 inch vinyl in December 1999 by EMI in Germany and in January 2000 elsewhere in Europe. It reached No. 27 in the UK singles chart in March 2000.
“Canto della Terra” is an Italian song which was the second single from Italian pop tenor Andrea Bocelli’s 1999 album, Sogno. The song was written by composer Francesco Sartori and lyricist Lucio Quarantotto, the same writers of Bocelli’s biggest hit “Con te Partiro”, and is among Bocelli’s most popular and well-known songs. Like “Con te partirò”, the song was later recorded as a duet between Bocelli and Sarah Brightman, for her 2008 album Symphony. It was performed as a duet with Brightman at Andrea’s “Live in Tuscany” Concert. The original version was also included in Bocelli’s 2007 greatest hits album, The Best of Andrea Bocelli: Vivare. It was a minor in hit France and the Netherlands and reached No. 24 in the UK in 2000.
“Ich will” (“I Want”) is a song by German Neue Deutsche Harte band Rammstein from their third studio album Mutter. It was originally released in Germany on 10 September 2001, but many channels did not air the music video (which was to debut on U.S. television the next evening) as it was released the day before the September 11 attacks. The music video of “Ich will” features the band members staging a bank robbery, making it seem as realistic as possible. The video shows both the robbery and its aftermath, and moves between these two scenes. It reached No. 30 in the UK in May 2002.
“Moi… Lolita” (English: “Me… Lolita”) is the debut single by French singer Alizee, released in July 2000 from her debut studio album, Gourmandises (2000). It was written by Mylene Farmer. The single topped the charts in Italy and Spain, while reaching the top five in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands. In France, “Moi… Lolita” peaked at number two for 13 weeks. In the United Kingdom the song was acclaimed by the NME who recognised it with a “Single of the Week” award. It became a rare example of a foreign-language song to chart highly in the UK, peaking at number nine in February 2002.
“Feuer frei!” is a song by German industrial metal band Rammstein. The song was released as the fifth single from their third album Mutter. The title is from the command to start shooting in German military language (literally “fire freely!”) and can be compared to “fire at will” or “open fire”. “Feuer frei!” is one of the band’s most well known songs. Despite this, it does not feature on the band’s greatest hits collection Made in Germany 1995-2011, for reasons that have not been explained. The UK “Feuer frei!” single was released in three parts (2 CDs, 1 DVD), in three different colors (Yellow-Green-Orange), each with different track listings. The video was directed by Rob Cohen. The video for “Feuer frei!” was released in America on MTV, to promote the film. The music video consisted of the band playing on a fiery stage, with several clips from the film. In addition, Rammstein is featured playing the song in a club in Prague in the film’s opening. It peaked at No. 35 in the UK in 2002.
